I am a visual artist working between UK and Australia. A ‘drawer’ first and foremost, I use charcoal, graphite, coloured pencils, and any other material that is present-to-hand, honouring the texture, immediacy and honesty of drawing. Whilst immersed in fastidious mark-making, decision-making is reflexive, responding intuitively to differing shades and depths of line forming on the surface. My practice uses personal mythology to explore isolation and connection. I am interested in the contrast between self and other and the systems of separation and unity that operate throughout the human condition. British Psychoanalyst, Donald W Winnicott places some artistic motivation in the tension between the desire to hide and the desire to communicate. My drawings are from this fissure, between the private refuge of my work and studio and public engagement.

According to the surrealist poet Paul Eluard, ‘there is another world, but it is in this one’ (1939). For me, the space he alludes to is a creative one: unbounded and existing beyond the known or assumed. My work emerges from this sensorial space, opening it up to multiple readings. Pursuing ambiguity often leads my decision-making process.

The human head fascinates me. I tend to draw the back of them or from above, so hair is prominent. Our hair is a key to how we present ourselves, so the concerns that influence my delicate hairlines are complex and expansive. But my work is not about hair, it is a segue between self and other, of what it means to be, feel and see as a human.

Completed works conceal a personal moment, a complex intimacy, a shift within, but have been generated through external engagement with the other.

'Primarily using 'drawing' as the first tool to articulate, Jo is constantly driven by notions of ambiguity or duality. She uses representational style to convey abstract ideas and is continually absorbed by the confluence of private and public, order and chaos, thought and matter.....'

words from 'UNVEILING CONTEMPORARIES' about my work in 2014, by Petra Nicel

"Jo has an undeniable ability to create work that is moving, stimulating and curious. This series stretches the subject beyond the dimensions of the image and into the 3-dimensional world; such a playful, beautiful and considered approach.

What initially struck me about Jo's work was her absolute, incontrovertible technical skill. Something that has been discussed a lot in my circles lately is the traditionally 'difficult' parts of the human body to translate into works of art; the feet, and, of course, the hands. The hands are such a fascinating and beautiful part of the body - they truly tell a story. They can be used to communicate, to act, and to move. Jo so delicately captures everything that is beautiful about them; the way they move, the way the muscles show, the way they grasp or cup things, the way their movements affect the muscles in the arms. They are complex, and to me, mesmerising. Jo draws them with such detail and elegance. I feel as though I could reach out and stroke the skin of that greyscale subject - it is warming, and it is rare for an artwork to make you feel that way. And by adding these sculptures into the foreground she creates a whole environment, an external context for the figure - a suggestion that they are living, moving characters. The sculptures add to the sense of story; they meld together into a narrative and challenge drawing traditions. Jo moves beyond the idea of drawings being flat and still.

Her stunning combination of 2D and 3D brings her work to life; it fills the exhibition space with movement and energy. These objects and images are so emotive; by looking at them I feel as though I have become the hand, and much like the drawing, am reaching into another state of being."